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GA
TERROR BULLETIN ISSUEDThe FBI and Department of
Homeland Security have issued a joint bulletin to law enforcement and
transportation agencies warning al-Qaida may be hatching a plot to use
GA aircraft filled with explosives in attacks on the tenth anniversary
of 9/11. The agencies, who, according to Politico, are describing the bulletin as "routine,"
say the terror organization has been recruiting Western operatives to
take flight training. There is apparently no specific threat being
mentioned.

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MIDAIRS
IN ALASKA, CANADAThe second midair collision in Alaska in as
many months is believed to have killed a young commercial pilot while
another managed to land her badly damaged aircraft safely. The Anchorage Daily News reports 24-year-old Scott
Veal, of Kenai, is presumed dead after the Grant
Aviation Cessna Caravan he was flying was in a collision with a Ryan Air Cessna 207 flown
by 26-year-old Kristen Sprague, of Idaho, and crashed Friday near
Nightmute on Nelson Island in southwestern Alaska. The pilots were the
lone occupants of both aircraft and both were headed to Bethel, about
100 miles east. Weather was reported as overcast with ceilings about
1,000 feet AGL and no fog or rain. Meanwhile, a collision between two
sailplanes has killed two Canadian pilots in the Rocky Mountains of
British Columbia. More...

PILOT'S
CRUSADE AGAINST "TOXIC" CABIN AIRJohn Hoyte flew for 30
years and says chronic fatigue and memory loss caused by toxins
circulated in the air systems of the aircraft he flew forced him to walk
away at the age of 49. Now 55, Hoyte wants to lobby the government to
force airlines to recognize a link between toxic fumes on their aircraft
and negative health effects for pilots. He has set up the Aerotoxic
Association based on his belief that exposure to fumes in airliners
caused him to suffer neurological damage. Hoyte's belief is
generally unsupported by the industry and may be challenged by some
studies. More...

Sebring Regional Airport
Hosts U.S. Sport Aviation Expo!
The LSA show is January 19-22, 2012 and
features conventional aircraft, kitplanes, powered parachutes, trikes,
gyros, amphibians, and innovative designs such as electrically powered
aircraft  over 150 aircraft on display. If it exists in the
recreational aviation market, it will be at Expo! Over 10,000 aviation
enthusiasts attend to see demonstration flights, attend EAA forums, and
see what is new in the LSA market.
Visit Sport-Aviation-Expo.com for
details.

RENDITION
FLIGHT DETAILS EMERGE IN COURTNew light fell on the U.S.
government's rendition program as aviation companies battled in court
over fees paid by the government for the service. According to court
testimony from an aircraft broker that made jets available, the
government was looking for "the cheapest aircraft to fulfill a mission."
Those who catered to the government's needs apparently supplied the jets
with their typical salvo of fruit plates and wine and billed for that
and other services. The court papers show that some jets flew as many as
ten landings during a single mission, costing the government as much as
$300,000 in fees. One company involved in the court proceedings claimed
to have flown 55 missions for the government. How they did it was
another matter. More...

MIT
FACES LITHIUM BATTERY SHIPMENT FINEThe brain trust at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may be getting a $175,000
lesson in the dangers of lithium ion batteries for a 2009 incident that
could have had tragic consequences. Someone at the school packed 33
circuit boards, each attached to a lithium battery into a cardboard box
and had FedEx pick it up for delivery to Seattle. The FAA says the box
didn't have the required dangerous goods declaration and labeling and
wasn't packed to prevent the batteries from short circuiting. It's
proposing a $175,000 fine against the august institution. Fortunately,
freight handlers at FedEx's sorting facility in Medford, MA discovered
the improperly labeled and packed box when it burst into flame on their
conveyor belt before being loaded on an aircraft. More...

JA Air Center  When It
Comes to Garmin Avionics,Go with a Name You Can
Trust!
Since 1965, pilots have trusted the avionics experts at JA Air
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than JA Air Center.

MATTERNET'S
VISION IS A ROADLESS WORLDMatternet is a plan to use
aviation technology to keep people alive and help them thrive when
economic or geographic challenges keep them isolated from streams of
commerce and aid, and traditional aviation isn't the answer. Matternet's
long-term vision of creating an autonomous transportation network for
point-to-point delivery of people and cargo must wait on technology that
is not yet proven, but its short-term goals are more in line with
technology's present abilities. For that, Matternet hopes to meet the
need for quick delivery of medical test results and their associated
medications to geographically isolated people. The plan would use small,
autonomous, electrically powered quadcopters carrying two-kilogram
packages 10 kilometers at a time. AVweb's Glenn Pew spoke with Matternet team leader Andreas Raptopoulos
for more details. More...

Southeast Aerospace
Leading Avionics Resource Now More
Effective!
The newly designed industry-leading web site
SEAerospace.com
has been released! Get to know all of SEA's services: Part Sales,
Repairs, Installations, Special Missions and Engineering. Each online
department provides detailed information on services, capabilities,
experiences and contact information. Save time and go directly to the
resources you need. And, as always, you can find real-time inventory
pricing and delivery on the part sales site,
SEA-Avionics.com.

DIAMOND
RESUMES D-JET TESTINGDiamond Aircraft has resumed flight
testing of its D-JET personal jet after a five-month break. Diamond
suspended testing in late March when it ran out of money to continue the
project. It took until early
June to secure new financing, including a well-publicized spat with
the Canadian government over a federal loan that was ultimately denied.
Diamond has not said who the benefactor is for the D-JET program
although it has said the funding it received was specifically allocated
to the jet. More...

STILL
THE BEST WAY TO BOARD AN AIRLINERThe widely used "block"
method (boarding an airliner in sections) is among the slowest of
methods, while the windows-first method (which we told you about in
2008) has again been proven best ... but carriers still aren't using
it. Astrophysicist Jason Steffen's scientifically deduced suggestion (PDF) for the
most efficient method of herding people onto airliners made headlines
when it was published in 2008. In essence, it is a block method with an
added dimension. Steffen loads passengers in groups, window to aisle,
back to front, skipping rows to keep people out of each other's way.
This June that method yielded the best time when tested for a TV show
against five other methods. And it took about half the time of the
widely used basic back to front block, or "section" method employed by
many airlines today. There may be some simple reasons for why we're not
using it. More...

Trade Up to the Lightspeed
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Letter of the Week: Flying the
Airplane

I had been flying the Airbus A320 for a supplemental 121
carrier when I was furloughed and had to scramble to find any flying
job. I interviewed for a job which required a sim check in a B727
simulator. I had not flown an aircraft with manual thrust levers, a yoke
or a trim switch for several years and had never flown a 727 or a 727
sim.

My hand-flying skills were atrocious. I could interpret the
steam gauges okay, but I couldn't keep up with the trim, and I
ham-fisted the thrust levers badly. Needless to say, I didn't get the
job, and I didn't blame them a bit.

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BRAINTEASERS
QUIZ #163: SOUND GOOD, FLY SHARPFlying's easy. Sounding good
on the radio while talking to ATC or swapping position reports on CTAF
takes panache and a firm grasp of FAA-approved/suggested phraseology.
Discover how smooth you sound by taking this quiz.

Fly More for
Less
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AVWEB
INSIDER BLOG: 9/11 WEEK -- YES TO COMMEMORATION, NO TO
COMMISERATIONAs the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
approaches, it was inevitable that the media would be filled with
retrospectives and reports. We are right to remember the victims who
died in the attacks and the servicemen and women who have died since.
But we owe it to ourselves not to wallow in the past and to put the risk
of terrorism where it belongs -- a worry, yes, but not one that
threatens the Republic and far, far down the list of hazards we all face
every day. It's time to move on, says Paul Bertorelli in his latest post
to the AVweb Insider blog. Read
more and join the conversation.More...

Peter Drucker
Says,"The Best Way to Predict the Future Is to Create
It"
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We had such a great experience at Hammond
Air, we had to nominate them! Erin Pierce, the owner, is one of the
nicest and most professional people I have met. Erin is always on-site
and truly runs the FBO like a family business. When the rental car
company didn't come through, he loaned us his Escalade to use.
Since they are brand-new (grand opening is in October) signage is not
good yet, but they are on the west side of the field. KHDC, if you are
not familiar, has an ILS and 6,500-foot runways and is
jet-friendly.

Many years ago, I had to make a night flight from
Cable Airport to Phoenix in a Cessna 150. The weather was clear, and I
filed a VFR flight plan for N51139 and departed at 10:30pm. While
climbing out over Ontario VOR (now PDZ), I contacted Ontario Approach
(now SoCal) for flight following, got a squawk, and was advised of radar
contact, then settled in for the long flight. The frequency was quiet at
that late hour, and I guessed the controller was bored. He must have
looked up our flight plan, because the next thing I heard
was:

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sales team.

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